Short story: I would avoid this dealership and go - konnerchristie5
Short story: I would avoid this dealership and go somewhere else. You will be pissing away money here. They're dishonest and will get you to pay for services you don't truly need. Then they will drop communication with you once you've been taken advantage of.
Long story of my experience:
We originally came into the dealership to do an oil change. We asked if the dealership could check the brakes because we had them serviced at an independent mechanic (front brakes around September 2023 and rear brakes around November 2023); and they've been pretty squeaky. Although this is normal, we wanted a second opinion.
We received a call from a service rep (I will refer to him as Guy). He explained the mechanic did a simple 'pad slap' and they should have also resurfaced the rotors; Now our pads are wearing down unevenly. His language was quite serious, leading us to believe our car needed this service immediately or further damage would be caused to our car. Although we asked how long our pads could expect to last since they are almost brand new, Guy could not give an estimate and refrained from providing any other guidance other than the best path forward is to have the rotors resurfaced and get new pads. During this conversation, Guy stated Nissan could keep our old pads as evidence of poor workmanship to try and get a refund at our previous mechanic for 'doing a poor job' ... to which agreed would be a great idea.
Upon arriving at the dealership, Guy explained the Nissan mechanics threw away the previous brake pads. I asked how this could be possible when we clearly discussed keeping them; he did not know. So now we have no evidence as to the status as our pads. HERE IS THE HUGE SURPRISE: Guy's suggestion was that Nissan could provide some other old random brake pads as evidence (implying that we should provide false evidence and lie to the previous mechanic). So not only did this dealership take advantage of us, they rid the proof, wanted us to lie and rip off another mechanic
From here, I expressed my complaint to Guy. After seeking advice from friends and professionals the night after our conversation, I learned that our pads should have been in near mint condition as we drove less than 5k miles since getting them serviced in 2023. There's no reason a professional dealership shouldn't have explained that our pads had a long useful life left. Pads should last anywhere from 70k miles to a very conservative 20k (for a poor, brake-heavy driver) I believed we were taken advantage of to pay $1,400 for a service we did not need whatsoever. Lastly, I asked to speak with a manager, he was 'busy in a meeting'. Then I called him twice and sent 2 emails to file a formal complaint. The manager never responded.
Life Lessons Learned:
1) Brake pads can last anywhere from 30k to 70k miles depending on the driver. Don't let any mechanic scam you into getting new pads when yours should have a long useful life.
2) Don't let the dealership may you believe you always need a rotor resurfacing. It's recommended every time by the dealership, but it's more subjective than originally let on.
3) This dealership, maybe Nissan in general, can be dishonest. Do your research beforehand and find a good mechanic ahead of time.
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